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Heptonstall, West Yorkshire: Ted Hughes
‘A naturally evolved local organism, like a giant protozoa’ ‘These early years anchored both of us up there for life’ The inspiration for this walk…Ted Hughes’ poetry Ted Hughes’ poetry was brought vividly to life for me by my first English Literature teacher, Philip Balkwill, when I was twelve . He was one of those […]
Marsden, West Yorkshire: Simon Armitage
‘My bedroom window in that house still operates as a lens and framing device’ ‘A border area where habitation meets the uninhabitable’ The book that inspired this walk – The Marsden Poems (2020) I read a review of this collection of poems in the Sunday Times just as I was starting to compile the list […]
Eastwood, Nottinghamshire: DH Lawrence
‘The Country of My Heart’ The book that inspired this walk…Sons & Lovers (1913) My English teacher told me that no-one remained a DH Lawrence fan beyond their twenties and, although in a sense he was right, he was somewhat dismissing our adulation of him in our late teens. And it really never was all […]
Broadstairs, Kent: Charles Dickens
‘You cannot think how delightful and fresh the place is and how good the walks’ KEY DATA Terrain: paved Starting point: Broadstairs Harbour Car Park, CT10 1EU Distance: 1.4 km (0.9 miles) Walking time: 25 mins (15 if you’re Dickens-speed) Map: Can be found online at: https://osmaps.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/route/9633303/Broadstairs-Kent-Charles-Dickens Facilities: All CHARLES DICKENS (1812-1870) The life and works […]
Inspiring Places: Lindisfarne (The Holy Island), Northumberland
‘As the tide ebbs and flows, this place is surrounded twice daily by the waves of the sea like an island and twice, when the shore is left to dry, it becomes again attached to the mainland.’ Saint Bede, 8th century KEY DATA Terrain: You can only cross by foot at low tide! Follow the […]
Akenfield (Charsfield) Suffolk: Ronald Blythe
‘A natural conversation’ The inspiration for this walk… Akenfield I first read Akenfield twenty or more years ago and it has held a tight grip on my perception of the countryside ever since. It just seemed so very believable – there was as much emotionally damaging about the claustrophobic, inward-looking world of early twentieth century […]
Bockhampton & The Frome Valley, Dorset: Thomas Hardy
‘The great inviolate place had an ancient permanence which the sea cannot claim’ KEY DATA Terrain: Undulating, potentially wet and muddy Starting point: Thorncombe Wood car park, Higher Bockhampton, DT2 8QJ Distance: 15.4 km (9. 6 miles) Walking time: 4 hrs 20 mins OS Map: OS Explorer OL15. The map can be found online at: https://osmaps.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/route/9601721/Bockhampton-The-Frome-Valley-Dorset-Thomas-Hardy […]
Quantocks, Somerset: The Birth of Romantic Poetry, Coleridge & Wordsworth
‘Upon smooth Quantock’s airy ridge we roved, unchecked, or loitered ’mid her sylvan combes’ (Wordsworth) ‘Now, my friends emerge Beneath the wide wide Heaven—and view again The many-steepled tract magnificent Of hilly fields and meadows, and the sea’ (Coleridge) The inspiration for this walk…The Lyrical Ballads (1798) When I first started to study English Literature […]
Symonds Yat, above Tintern Abbey, Herefordshire: William Wordsworth
‘Oh Sylvan Wye! Thou wanderer through the woods, How often has my spirit turned to thee!’ KEY DATA Terrain: muddy, steep climbs Starting point: Symonds Yat Rock Car Park, GL12 7NZ Distance: 9.6 km (5.9 miles) Walking time: 3 hrs OS Map: OS Explorer OL14 Wye Valley and the Forest of Dean. This route can […]
Fowey, Cornwall: Daphne du Maurier
‘I think Fowey means more to me than anything now. The river, the harbour, the sea. It’s much more than love for a person.’ ‘All I want to be is at Fowey. Nothing and no one else. This now is my life.’ The inspiration for this walk…Rebecca I must admit it was the 1940 Hitchcock […]
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